‘We have to accept £18k cost of class universities’

BUSINESS leaders in Milton Keynes have been told that quality university education cannot be provided with student fees of less than £18,000 a year.

Professor Terence Kealey, Vice Chancellor of Buckingham University, was speaking to an audience of Milton Keynes Business Leaders about how MK can establish itself as a US-style international centre of excellence.

Prof Kealey sees the prospect of more privately-funded universities, like his own, being created. But if Milton Keynes has ambitions, it cannot be done on the cheap. He said: “If you want a stellar university in MK you cannot run it on fees of £9,000 per year. The genuine cost of high quality undergraduate education is £18,000 and anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves.

He added: “If you want something that in 100 years people will talk about in terms of Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge, then that’s the Ivy League model and I suggest we think about that”.